DR JAMES GIBB

Otago Daily Times, Issue 22422, 17 November 1934, Page 18

DR JAMES GIBB

IMPRESSIONS OF AUSTRALIA PECULIARITIES IN SPEECH “To a New Zealander the Australian is intensely interesting. He is, so like, and yet in many respects so different, from ourselves. There is, to begin with, the difference -in, his. speech. - ’Despite; the general resemblance of the tongue. Australia' and New'Zealand, one can hardly : fail to distinguish between the speech of the "islanders and the continentals.” This view was expressed to the Dominion by Dr James Gibb, who returned to Wellington last week-after a visit to Australia, when requested.. to express some opinions on Australia:and the Australians. .- “We niay be approximating to the Australian nasality and mismanagement of the vowels,” said Dr Gibb. “ I : think we are. Our children, and too many of our grown-ups, change the ‘ a ’ sound into * !•,’ and the ■‘ 5 ’ into ■ * oi,’ as I ‘ moincl ’ for mind and ‘.toime ’ for time, | but it takes a New South Wales girl to call curiosity * curiosoity,’ as I neard a reasonably educated young woman do. I had a long talk with a Scotch College boy (Melbourne)" about .many things, his style of ; speech included.: I told him about the famous sentence de; vised by the late Mr J. P. Firth to j test Wellington College boys. My J youngster was unimpressed. *At Scotch,’ said he, ‘ they all talk my wye, and nobody moins.’ INFLUENCE OF CLIMATE. . "The peculiarities of Australian, or for that matter of New Zealand, speech have sometimes been attributed to' climatic, influence. There may be nothing in this contention, but is it not certain, that in the long run the climate of Australia will spell but q marked difference between the Australian and New Zealand type in a multitude of ways? The Victorians will not change. Their climate, like our own, is robust, and only occasionally do they experience very , great heat. But the rest o! Australia is bound to change, and is, I believe, changing. Charles Kingsley used to .; say, ‘ It’s the hard grey : weather breeds ■ hard Englishmen,’ and we all know the epigram, 4 Whfere the snow falls there; is freedom.’ -; “ How can the' Australians fail, as the generations, run on to approximate in personal appearance and in much more important characteristics to the European type of similar latitudes? It may be replied that after a century and more no such changes are perceptible, and that is true enough, but the generation that succeed the pioneers of a new land are usually noted for their vigour. They, too, are pioneers, and more than equal to the softening or depressing influences of their climate and environment. But in the end these always tell. New Zealand has probably a greater future before it than Australia. “ Whether. it be due to climatic influence or not the Australian man in the street strikes me, on the other hand, as. a more kindly and genial human than (dare I say it?) the New Zealander. In Melbourne on one occasion I found a constable willing to guide me across a densely crowded thoroughfare to a street island. As I was not quite sure ,of the name of my tramway car, though; of course, I knew where I wanted to go, he waited with me there till my car arrived and helped me aboard ! Everywhere it was the same. Consideration of the stranger and the aged seemed to be in the very atmosphere. We are a grimmer folk. We are much more Scottish, both in our strength and-weakness, than the Australians. This is probably due to the proportionately much greater number of Scots in our population and ancestry. Otago and Southland were for many years practically Scotch provinces. The pilgrim fathers of Otago were a rather grim lot of men and women, but they were made of durable stuff—tenax propoaitix —and not only Otago but the whole of New Zealand is deeply indebted to them. ' NEW ZEALAND TEACHERS CHOSEN. “That the educational system, or at least the educationists, of New Zealand impress the Australians themselves with their abilities and efficiency, is evident' from the frequent choice they make of New Zealand teachers to fill the higher positions in their secondary schools,” said Dr Gibb. “These in Australia, and notably in Victoria, are in the hands of the churches. The largest school in Australia, the second largest, it is said, in the British Empire, is Scotch College, Melbourne. It has a roll of 1200 or 1300.-pupils. The phenomenal success of this wonderful institution is due to the principalehip of that very great schoolmaster and noble man, the late Dr William Littlejohn, an Aberdeen Scot, but who was for a good many years a teacher in and then principal of Nelson College. When he died a year ago Melbourne was stirred to its depths. This great gift New Zealand gave to Australia. He has been succeeded by another New Zealander, Mr Colin Gilray, of John M'Glashan College, Dunedin, who promises to sustain the reputation ’ achieved by his predecessor.

“ Scots College, Sydney, is another great school, not as large as Scotch, Melbourne, but with 500 pupils and splendid •buildings. It lias grown from small things to its present dimensions under the inspiring principalship of . Mr James Bee, a New Zealander born, and a wellknown teacher in the Boys’ College, Wellington. He is retiring at the end of this year, but his successor is already appointed —Mr Anderson, of St. Andrew’s College, Christchurch. Dr Smith, now deceased, a new Zealand teacher, wiw for many years the director of primary education in Victoria. Ormond College, the great residential and tutorial college of the Presbyterian Church in Melbourne, has for ite master Professor D. Picken. who went to it from the chair of mathematics in Victoria College, Wellington. Professor Maclean, of the Old Testament chair in the Divinity Hall, Victoria, housed in Ormond College, was the distinguished Minister of St. Andrew’s Church, Dunedin. Mr William Grey, principal of the Presbyterian Ladies’ College, Melbourne, a large and highly successful institution, wms a New Zealand teacher and principal of the Training College, Wellington. “ This does not exhaust the list, but even as stated it is a sufficiently impressive testimony to the value attached by Australia to New Zealand men and educational methods. Their superiority cannot be attributed to a more thorough university training. Dr Fisher, of the economics chair in Otago, assured me that Sydney and Melbourne universities are better equipped and carry study further than ours. Why then do not Australian educational authorities choose out of their large population of seven millions teachers for their prize positions, but come to our little land for so many of them? Is it not a testimony to the quality of the stuff of which the New Zealander is made? CHURCHES AND THEIR WORK. “ Naturally 1 was eager to learn how the churches and church leaders of Australia compare with the New Zealand product, and here again I found that we have no need to be ashamed. As far as my owu church is concerned it is only j in Victoria that it is conspicuous, though j I was told that in Queensland, too, it j does well. In Melbourne they have many , fine church structures, and not a few

ministers of outstanding abilities. - Several of these are New Zealanders, though in this country we have drawn./ ,: more upon their pulpits than they have on ours. But in all the things that : indicate the vitality, the New : Zealand church (I am thinking largely, if not' - exclusively, of Presbyterianism) is the,, equal or even ahead of the best that Australia can show. The concentration of so huge a proportion of the population in Melbourne and Sydney ’ make it possible to erect finer and more ; ; impressive, structures, though I saw nothing more striking architecturally than First and Knox Churches, Dunedin,: and few as large as these,, and. St. John’s, Wellington, Our congregations are as » whole larger, and the contributions of the people for altruistic purposes—missions, foreign and home, and other objects—much exceed those of the Aus- . Italians. Even in that department ot activity in which the New South Wales , church claims pre-eminence—social set' ;; vice—we compare well. They have * magnificent foundation at Burnside, I . should think the finest series of orphanage buildings in the world. They far. exceed in appearance anything we have got in our six sets of homes in different parts of New Zealand, but their total revenue, obtained mostly from endow-, merits, for the past year was £IB,OOO, * whereas our revenue was close on £30,000. There are many other comparisons T could make, but these for the present must suffice.”